God’s people said, “The LORD has forsaken and forgotten us.” Christ says, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands.” (Isaiah 49:14-16)
This is Part 2 of a 5-part series that started with Christ Will Not Forget You (Part 1).
What Could be Stronger than a Mother’s Love?
In Isaiah’s words above, Jesus compares His love for His followers to mother-love, often the strongest love among human beings. Our mom carries us for nine months inside her body, gives birth in great pain, and usually commits years of her life to raise us. Her amazing devotion often lasts as long as she lives. She loved us before we were born; she loves us despite all our mistakes; and she will always love us– just because we are hers. James Joyce asserts, “Whatever else is unsure in this cruel world, a mother’s love is not.”
Mothers often perform extreme and extraordinary acts to rescue their children. In Lawrenceville, Georgia, Angela Cavallo’s son was trapped under a Chevrolet. Angela lifted the car high and long enough for neighbors to rescue her son. In Quebec, Lydia Angiyou saved her children by fighting off an attacking polar bear. In 2009, two English mothers, Donna McNamee and Abigail Sicolo, were dubbed “superwomen” after lifting a car off of a boy’s body to save his life. This motherly power, or “hysterical strength,” can spring into action when children’s lives are in danger.
Some women have had heartbreaking lives. They have been mistreated or abused so badly that their God-given motherly instinct is damaged. That’s sad for those moms and their children. Several studies show that children are more likely to be harmed by their biological mother than their father! But thank God, many mothers show unconditional and sacrificial love. My Mom died in 2023, and she was the best!
What Kind of Love Lasts Forever?
The Psalmist said: For the Lord will not reject His people. He will never forsake His inheritance. (Psalm 94:14)
In Psalm 27:10, God says, “Even if your father and mother forsake you, I will receive you.” The Hebrew verb for “receive” here is asaph,” which means “gathers in, welcomes, accepts.” Even when others fail or hurt us, the Lord gathers His followers to Himself and holds us close. One missionary said: “My father and mother abandoned me. I was like an orphan! But Jesus took me in and made me His.”
When we surrender our lives to Christ, He brings us into His forever family. By God’s act of free grace He adopts us as His sons and daughters, with all everlasting rights and privileges.1 Jesus says: Even if your parents and everybody else turn away from you, I will forever support you, care for you, protect you, and save you.
Christ’s name is Immanuel, which means God with us.2 He says, “Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you. I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”3 Trouble, hardship, death, demons, or Satan can’t overpower Jesus’ love for us. He says, “You can face the trials of life with certainty that you are not alone. I will fight for you and cause you to win. Nothing in all creation can separate you from My love.”4
The Psalmist said, “Those who know Your name trust in You, for You, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek You.” (Psalm 9:10)
Whom Will this Father Choose?
In the 1970’s, a woman named Hanh had an affair with an American soldier and got pregnant. The soldier returned to the U.S., never knowing he had fathered a child. Hanh’s baby girl, Linh, looked different from other Vietnamese children, with pink skin and curly blonde hair. In that culture, mixed race kids were hated. Some mothers killed their children to spare them the pain of rejection.
Hanh raised Linh the best she could, until the shunning became too severe. Then she abandoned her daughter. Linh was mocked by people who called her “alien devil” in Vietnamese and she came to hate herself. For two years, Linh survived by begging in the streets until someone brought her to an orphanage.
One day, word spread through the orphanage that an American couple was coming to adopt a young boy. All the children got excited because one of them was getting a home. Linh was now nine and was given the job of cleaning up the little boys. She scrubbed them and combed their hair, wondering which one the Americans would choose. Soon the couple arrived, and Linh noticed that the husband had huge hands. With them, he lifted up every baby and kissed them, tears running down his face. Linh saw that the man loved every one of them as though they were his own flesh and blood.
Linh remembers: Then the man saw me out of the corner of his eye. I was sickly and scrawny, with lice in my hair and scars all over. But the man put his huge hands around my face and jabbered away in English with a gigantic smile. The translator said –He wants you, Linh! He says you are the one for him.5 This true story reminds us how Jesus the Son of God set His love on us, even when we were broken and unattractive in our sin.
Christ says: Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. (Isaiah 49:15-16)
Christ’s Greater Love
The Lord backed up His words with His life-saving actions. Jesus came to save sinners, even the worst and most damaged.6 All men, women, girls, and boys make ourselves God’s enemies because of our rebellion and selfishness. We go our own way and ignore the Lord who made and loves us. Our sin has to be cleansed for us to be reconciled to God. Praise the Lord, He took the initiative to save us! He died 2,000 years ago on a cruel cross and rose from the grave, to adopt you and me for Himself. Now Christ looks down on us from Heaven and says, “You are the apple of My eye, My chosen ones, My royal children, and I will never forget you.”
Jesus loves us too much to leave us as we are. We are not in the orphanage anymore! Christ delivers us from our old way of life and makes us new people from the inside out. Just as Jesus was raised from the dead to the glory of the Father, Christ’s believers were raised with Him so that we, too, may live new lives.7
Prayer
Lord, thank You for choosing us, even at our worst, to belong to You. Thank You for gathering us to Yourself and adopting us into Your forever family. You will never leave us or abandon us, and that nothing can separate us from Your everlasting love. When we feel afraid or alone, help us remember that You are near. Transform us from the inside out so we look more and more like You every day. Amen.
Go in peace, beloved.
Walk with King Jesus today and be a blessing to others!
To be continued. You can read Christ Will Not Forget You (Part 3)
Notes 1 See John 1:12-13; Rom 8:14-17; 2 Cor 6:18; Gal 4:4-5; 1 John 3:1-3. 2 Isaiah 7:14; Matt 1:23. 3 Heb 13:15; Matt 28:20. 4 Rom 8:31-39. 5 adapted from a true story told by Lee Strobel. 6 1 Tim 1:15-16. 7 See Ezek 36:25-27; Rom 6:1-14, 7:6, 12:1-2; 2 Cor 5:17; Gal 2:20; Titus 3:5.